Just finished my last farm prac at an amazing dairy down south. Fed calves, milked cattle, drove mobs and even pulled my very first calf! I had the best time and learnt an incredible amount about the Western Australian dairy industry. It’s definitely reignited my love of agricultural industries and large animals. Couldn’t be happier (and more tired) than I am right now!

Today I found out that I officially passed my second year of vet. Normally that wouldn’t be a big deal. In fact, under normal circumstances I’d probably be disappointed that I hadn’t received straight HDs. This year though, it’s a miracle I made it.

Everybody knows how hard vet is. I thought it was the hardest thing I’d go through at my age but how wrong I was. At the beginning of this year I was diagnosed with stage 3 malignant metastatic cancer. I had several surgeries, numerous scans and have received a number of rounds of month-long chemotherapy treatments - all while I continued study. Lots of people told me to defer and a lot of people never thought I’d cope but I did. I’m not going to sit here and tell you how easy it was because it wasn’t. But I never handed an assignment in late and never used my illness as a way to get out of anything at all and in the end I got exactly where I wanted to be.

Times like these put studying vet into perspective. Right now it may be hard to see beyond the little vet school bubble but there is so much more to life than getting perfect grades and studying constantly. Be hard working and a genuinely good person and you will be an amazing vet, trust me. I’m not writing this so people feel sorry for me. I’m proving that no matter how hard things get you will always find a way to make it through for the things you love.

How many of us dreamt as young children of becoming vets, helping animals and saving their lives? I didn’t choose this career path based on income, but I always expected to pay off my debts and this is becoming ridiculous. While this may not directly affect me in monetary terms, it absolutely terrifies me to think what repercussions a change like this will have on the veterinary community. In a profession that is known to be one of worst educational investments already, renowned for mental fatigue and suicide, it’s scary to think what kind of pressure this will put on young vets. If the long hours, the years of learning, the emotionally draining work, and the sometimes terrible pay wasn’t enough, knowing that you had a debt like this hanging over your head at the age of 25 is enough to push anyone over the edge. To realise that buying a house, raising children and just surviving could be potentially unattainable is an even bigger burden on the mind.

Regardless of if you want to be a veterinarian, know a veterinarian or whether you use their services please do not support this. Think about anyone you love having to face a debt like this hanging over their head for their entire life. This will kill people. Young, educated, compassionate people that just wanted to help and never expected much in return.

Thoughts when studying parasitology

Parasitology you are killing me!

Hey guys!

So I have been been seriously MIA lately but I am back :) Over the past few months I've sat all my deferred exams (successfully thank god), I've been on a two week sheep prac which was incredible, sat my first exams for this semester, fallen horribly behind in parasitology, and have shot this years nude calendar just this morning! It's been a very busy semester already and from the looks of it it's only going to get worse.

Can't believe that we are already planning our own Half Way Day so the count down is finally on for my BVSc graduation. Time really does fly!

Anyway, here's a picture of a cute little lamb and I from farm prac because, let's face it, who doesn't love cute lambs :)

Heading off for my two week extensive sheep prac in Pingelly tomorrow!

Pingelly is a small town in the Wheatbelt region of WA, about 160 km from Perth. It is one of the key agricultural regions with wheat, barley, sheep and cattle farming being the main activities. It's only a small town of approximately 1500 residents. I'll be living on a farm between Brookton and Pingelly that runs about 13 500 head of sheep. The two weeks will consist of lambing, marking, weighing, general farm work and more than likely some opportunities to perform postmortems on any deceased lambs. Super excited for the opportunity to get out and handle some animals and see a small part of how the sheep industry runs. However, with it being the middle of winter here, I am not so excited about the cold - hopefully my thermals will save me!

Hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures (who doesn't love a cute lamb photo?) and share my adventures over the next fortnight!

I personally think the hardest part about applying for veterinary science is writing your personal statement. Capturing the reasons why you are the best candidate for selection can be very challenging and you must remember that it isn't written overnight.

If you're interested in applying for the veterinary course at any university or college I'd suggest taking a read, asking anyone that's been successful at getting in and starting asap :)

The only thing worse than exams is having to spend the only 2 weeks of break studying for those that you had no choice but to defer.

Photo summary of the exam period

When the same person asks stupid questions in every single lecture

Had a great time out at the Boarswamp Campdraft yesterday watching the campdrafting, meeting new people and getting some hands on experience with some cattle!

Big shout out to my beautiful dog for not poisoning herself with chocolate this weekend. However, next time you think it's a good idea to roll in vomit the day after I've bathed you (or ever really), please think again.

Listening to this was legitimately one of my practice questions for my nutrition exam tomorrow. Thank god for lecturers that have a sense of humor!